Suitability of East Coast maple for boat building

[bjl_sailor]

I came upon a minor hardwood windfall last evening. A friend of a friend who is moving gave me over 250 board feet of locally grown ( new england) maple hardwood slabs from 3" thick to 1.5" in the 10" x14" wide by 8 to 10 foot length. I Stacked it all up with sticks between each peice 2' apart and it already looks fairly well dried......

Was wondering how suitable this material is for epoxy lamination. -- I begged off on the slabs of red oak he had as I understand that it bonds poorly with epoxies. Also is maple's strength comparable to ash/white oak? My first use for it I think will be to replace the ash called for as on of the laminate in my 'ash/mahog' tiller lamination.

[pjwalsh]

Alkthough reasonably strong maple is not a very durable wood in the marine environment - it has been used in hulls by Nova Scotia builders but I think mostly because that was all that was available in large dimensions. I would use it for a furniture project or sell it to get douglas fir or recycled old growth yellow pine. It does glue well with epoxy though and should be just fine for something like a tiller.